Jamie Squire/AllsportRyan Blake's motorcycle journey will take him to Madison Square Garden on November 18 for the annual Coaches vs. Cancer tournament.

Some people do what they have to, then await the weekend. Others do something because it’s what they are — it speaks to their most authentic selves.

Like Ryan Blake, for example: Take away what he does and you wonder how he would rechannel his obvious passion for basketball. Or take away his motorcycles, and he’d probably fly into a gear-head rage that involves flying wrenches.

He likes what he likes — hoops and hogs. And he’s found a way to combine these two interests to assist people he has never met.

Blake is the longtime scouting director of the NBA, so he’d be attending games in the next few weeks anyway with the college season getting cranked up. But he’ll be getting around differently this time: He’s currently on a 3,000-mile journey on a Triumph motorcycle that will take him to 11 venues over the next 14 days, all while carrying the banner for Coaches vs. Cancer and the American Cancer Society.

“For a year, I’ve been asking around, and getting inspired by what other people had done,” the Atlanta native said in a phone chat before his departure Friday. “Like everyone else, I’ve been affected personally with friends and family — some survivors, others who have lost the battle. And I’m a motorcycle enthusiast, so it’s something I can do — I can bring a bad-ass bike to the party.

“But it wasn’t until a good friend passed away two years ago that I realized there was a lot of great help out there for people who weren’t aware of it. So this is a way to combine my two passions in life — to go to games and show off this bike — while I spread the gospel, basically.”

His wife, Darla, explained it this way: “When Ryan lost his friend, after nursing him to the very end, that was it,” she said. “He had to do this. And when he is passionate about something, you can’t hold him back.”

The journey started Friday morning in a driveway in Northeast Atlanta, from where Blake headed for Chapel Hill, where both the North Carolina men’s and women’s teams played Friday night.

This was a meaningful first stop, he pointed out. “Jessica Breland is back playing again, after her battle against Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” Blake said of the star Tar Heel forward, whose new
foundation (the Comeback Kid Fund) benefits the UNC’s pediatric oncology program.

From Chapel Hill, he’ll go to George Mason, Maryland, Georgetown, Penn State, Manhattan, and Madison Square Garden on November 18 for the annual Coaches vs. Cancer tourney. That’s about 40 percent of the journey.

Triumph is sponsoring the trip, and the British company loaded up a $15,000 Thunderbird bike for him with every necessary feature, including a windshield and bag rack. But Blake, whose longest trip to date was 10 hours (Atlanta to Daytona Beach and back) said he’ll travel light.

“I’ve got what I need — boots and some Coaches vs. Cancer shirts, some warm gear and a toothbrush,” he said. “And some brochures to hand out at every stop.

“I’ll be bringing the bike into every venue — which, again, is very cool — and we’ll get the camera out and take pictures with fans at pregame and halftime. The coaches will be out there with me for photos.”

From Manhattan, Blake will turn south through Charleston (Nov. 21) and make numerous stops in Florida, culminating in the Old Spice Classic at the Disney Sports Complex on Nov. 25-28.

He’ll narrate the trip at twitter.com/HoopsHighway. By the time he gets home — factoring in the detours to hotels and broadcast locations that have asked him to stop by — he’ll have covered about 3,000 miles, he figures.

He spent Wednesday with his wife and his two grade-school children, and stopped by to visit his Hall of Fame dad, Paterson native Marty Blake. The legendary scout, 83, refused to pose on the bike, “but he suggested a sidecar, which we don’t have,” his son said.

Until they meet again, the road is his home.

“I’m already off to a good start: They had no hotels in Chapel Hill, because of Saturday football, but a guy made room just because he lost both parents to cancer and it’s a cause he believes in,” Blake said.

“Those are the kinds of people I keep meeting. Everyone knows Coaches vs. Cancer now, because their formula is empowering the community to make an impact — not just to raise money and awareness, but to fight for the rights and dignity of people who are in need of help.”
Dave D'Alessandro: ddalessandro@starledger.com